The peanut gallery

It’s almost Pesach, and you know what that means… time to find creative ways to use Chametz! Technically speaking this is a creative way to use Kitniyot, but the gist is still the same. I had a jumbo size jar of honey roasted peanuts that I had been slowly but surely been snacking on throughout the semester, and I had been eating them more frequently recently in preparation for Pesach. However, I couldn’t take any more of just eating these peanuts by themselves; it was becoming monotonous. So I got to thinking and realized that honey roasted peanuts could be crushed to make a super-flavorful breadcrumbs substitute. And even though I knew that at least half of my friends and readers of this blog wouldn’t be able to enjoy this resourceful dish due to allergy concerns, I figured I’d give it a shot anyway.

P.S. Admittedly, I am taking a risk by publicizing this recipe. If camp finds out that I’ve even once come into contact with peanuts, they might not let me work there anymore.

Ingredients:

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Honey roasted peanuts

BBQ sauce

Asparagus

Olive oil

Directions:

Grease a roasting tin and a baking sheet and preheat the oven to 425°F.

Place the peanuts into a large ziploc bag. Crush them until they are mostly powdery.

Create an assembly line: a plate with BBQ sauce on it followed by a plate with the crushed peanuts.

Dip each chicken breast in the BBQ sauce and then in the crushed peanuts. Place in the roasting tin and bake at 425°F for 40 minutes.

Toss the asparagus in some olive oil and BBQ sauce.

Place the asparagus on a baking sheet and top with the remaining crushed peanuts.

Roast the asparagus at 425°F for 20 minutes. (Pro-tip: put the asparagus in the oven 20 minutes after you put the chicken in the oven. That way everything is done at the same time.)

Why this recipe is good for college students: The peanuts in this dish could be replaced by any snack nuts you have lying around, which means you don’t have to spend any money, time, or effort finding something to top the chicken and asparagus.

Why this recipe is good for those who keep Kosher: Pretty much all snack nuts are parve, so you won’t have any problems using them on chicken.

What I would do differently if I made this recipe again

Due to the long time they spent in the oven, the peanuts on the chicken burnt a bit, which somewhat overpowered the chicken. In order to mitigate this effect, I would sprinkle some more crushed peanuts over top of the chicken with about 20 minutes left in the roasting process, to make sure that nicely caramelized peanuts outnumber the burnt ones.